Orioles Links: Jones, Duquette, Alvarez, Machado, Payroll

Adam Jones described the Orioles’ offseason as “solid” thus far but the outfielder tells MLB.com’s Ian Browne that he hopes Chris Davis and Darren O’Day can be re-signed.  He cites those two as the club’s top priorities and he feels the organization is “really going to make an aggressive attempt to sign CD. At the end of the day, you need CD.”  Even if neither player returns, Jones still has confidence the O’s can adapt and return to the winning form of the 2012-14 seasons, noting “We’ve had tastes of success the last three or four years. There’s no going back to Walmart steak. We’re a Whole Foods type of organization now. We want to win.” With three years left on his own contract, Jones says it’s up to the team if he’ll spend the rest of his career as an Oriole, and he very much wants to win a World Series in Baltimore.

Here’s more from Charm City…

• Dan Duquette tells MASNsports.com’s Roch Kubatko that as prices for available pitchers continue to escalate, it’s more important than ever to develop young arms.  Kevin Gausman, Mike Wright and David Hess are some of the young pitchers Baltimore needs to develop to keep costs down in the rotation, though Duquette said the O’s are also still searching for an external addition to their staff.  The rotation also needs incumbent starters like Chris Tillman and Miguel Gonzalez to bounce back from disappointing 2015 seasons.
• Duquette also discussed scouting Pedro Alvarez early in his career, which adds to the speculation that the Orioles are indeed interested in the newly-available first baseman.
• Kubatko’s piece includes a partial transcript of Manny Machado’s recent appearance on 105.7 The Fan radio, as the third baseman discusses his career, his bonds with his teammates and Matt Wieters’ return, among other topics.  Kubatko notes that the O’s have yet to discuss a contract extension with Machado this offseason but they’re likely to do so once more pressing winter business is settled.
• Now that Orioles have tendered contracts to arbitration-eligible players, MASNsports.com’s Steve Melewski projects that the club’s payroll looks to be in the neighborhood of $103MM for 19 players.  It looks like the O’s will indeed have to top last year’s $118MM payroll to address the rest of their needs, including possibly re-signing Davis.  Kubatko notes that Baltimore could boost payroll in 2016 and then lower it by about $25MM in 2017 once Wieters and Trumbo are off the books.  Jim Duquette (the MLB Network Radio analyst, former Mets GM and Dan Duquette’s cousin) noted to Melewski that the Orioles have financial room to maneuver on long-term deals since Jones is the only player signed beyond the 2017 season.
• The decision to re-sign Nolan Reimold likely means that Steve Pearce won’t be returning, CSNMidAtlantic.com’s Rich Dubroff opines.  Between Trumbo, Reimold and L.J. Hoes, Baltimore now has plenty of right-handed hitting options for the outfield, first base and DH spots and the team probably doesn’t need another righty-swinger in Pearce.  Any further additions will need to be a left-handed hitter (i.e. Davis or Alvarez) to add balance to what is currently an overwhelming right-handed hitting roster.  Pearce hasn’t drawn too much attention in free agency yet, however, so Dubroff speculates that if this continues, he could be a low-cost signing for the O’s later in the winter since he’s a popular figure within the team.